Eating My Way Through the Stubai Alps, Austria

Introduction

If you like to hike, you can:

• Backpack, carry 40+ pounds, eat freeze-dry food stuff, sleep in the mud, not wash
  
• Trek in Nepal, let porters or mules carry your pack, sleep in cozy tea houses (inns)
• Hike in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, stay in the Appalachian Mountain Club Huts, and eat hearty meals
  
• Hike in the European Alps, eat delicious food every night, and even enjoy (often) hot showers 

I have done all of these, but in my dotage, I am not sure if my knees can handle a heavy pack and carrying all my supplies for traditional backpacking (option 1 above). Using the services of porters and/or horses is luxurious (Kilimanjaro 2015, Nepal 2007, 2011, and 2017). In some countries, using porters is the common way to trek. But the last option above looks better and better, especially if you want good food and easy access (and you like to wash). 

 

Stubai Alps (from Cicerone Press)

The Stubai Alps are an awesome complex of limestone peaks in western Austria, southwest of Innsbruck. They are easy to reach from almost any US gateway airport or European city.

 

One of the classic mountain tours is the Stubaier Höhenweg, or the Stubai rucksack route. It is an 8-day walk in fantastic mountain terrain. It can be extended a couple of days with an alternate start route. Route Information: buy the Cicerone Press guidebook of the Stubai route. You can also plan your trip with the help of the Tirol web page's interactive map.

 

 

Changing trains in Munich

I flew into MUC (Flughafen München), took the train from the airport, and was in Innsbruck in about three hours (yes, the Europeans are civilized). Once I reached Innsbruck, I bought a few munchies and a SIM card for my mobile. Then I took the bus to the village of Mieders and the cable car up to Hoch Series, and was ready to start. 

Stubai Rucksac Route (from Cicerone Press)

Below, I will list each day's walk and and where I stayed (and ate; after all, I ate my way through the Stubai Alps). Please note: this is a long article with no urban decay.

 Day 1, Maria Waldrast Monastery (1638 m)

Maria Waldrast Monastery (1638 m)

Health food dinner at Maria Waldrast

I started my Stubai trek on the alternate start, which adds two days to the total. So for me, Day 1 was a short walk from the cable car at Hoch Series. I was exhausted from the long flight across the Atlantic and the train ride, so a healthy Tirolean dinner (see, I ate a salad) and it was bed for me. The monastery operates rooms like a hotel. They are immaculately clean, and hot shower is in a tiny lavatory.

 

Day 2, Padasterjoch Haus (2232 m)

Padasterjoch Haus (2232 m)

Typical room in a mountain hut

More health food, locally-clucked eggs

The good stuff

This was a short day distance-wise but required 1300+m elevation gain. I try to take it easy for the first few days of a hike because I am totally out of practice. Padasterjoch was a nice hut with superb cuisine. The serious apple torte was to share among several people at my dinner table.

 

Hiker note: This and most of the huts do not accept electronic payment, so take cash.

Days 3 and 4, Innsbrucker Hütte (2369 m)

 

Innsbrucker Hütte (2369 m)

More health food

This the first hut for the normal start of the Höhenweg. Hikers take a taxi up the up the Pinnistal valley and climb to Innsbrucker Hütte. Because I was already up on the ridge to the east, I had to plunge steeply down 1000m to the Pinnistal valley, rest (and eat a pastry), and then ascend 1400 m to the hut. Long day! The hut was welcoming and had showers. The hut was crowded and I had to stay in a lager (bunk room) rather than a room. I stayed two nights here because the next hut on the route, the Bremer, was full.

Day 5, Bremer Hütte (2413m) 

 

A welcome sight when tired, the Bremer Hütte (2413 m)

Frühstück at the Bremer

Room with a view - from the lager at Bremer Hütte

The Bremer Hütte is in an austere spot with a lake and snow patches. When the mist clears, the view is fantastic.

 

Day 6, Nürnberger Hütte (2280 m) 

Nürnberger Hütte (2280 m)

Afternoon in the sun at Nürnberger

Obligatory mid-afternoon nutrition snack. The glass contains Radler, light lager beer and half sparkling lemonade. The whip cream comes from real cows.

This was an easy day's walk to the Nürnberger Hütte, only 5 km, and I had plenty of time to sit in the sun and eat the obligatory pastry and Radler (to rebuild my strength, of course). This beautiful old hut dates to 1886 and functions more like a hotel than mountaineers' hut. The same family has operated this hut for over 100 years.

Day 7, Sulzenau Hütte (2191 m)

Sulzenau Hütte at a comfortable 2191 m.

Most of the alpine mountain huts gain much of their revenue from day-hikers, who stop for food and beer (or many beers). They head down late in the day, leaving the over-nighters to enjoy the views and the quiet evenings. 

Families welcome and locally-sourced food

Sulzenau Hütte is a gorgeous hut (hotel) with expansive views. This building was erected in 1976-1978 to replace an older hut that was destroyed by an avalanche. Like many of the other huts, the hot showers are coin-operated. You insert a token or 1 Euro coin and wash quickly before you quota of hot water runs out (often 1 or 2 minutes).

School group near the Grunau See (lake)

I saw school groups on mountain outings. These children were bright-eyed, intelligent, disciplined, well-spoken, and well-equipped. How refreshing to see good parenting and encouragement.

 

Day 8, Dresdner Hütte (2302 m)

 

Dresdner Hütte (2302 m)

Dresdner Hütte is very popular because it is next to a cable car station. Mid-day, hundreds of hikers and casual tourists come to eat and enjoy the view. It becomes quiet and lonely at night after the last cable car departs.

Fresh bread, beer, veggies - does it get better than this?

Danger, danger, health food overload. By now, I was running out of cash, so I took the cable car down to base station, went to an ATM, and headed back up by cable car.

Day 9, Neue Regensburger Hütte (2286 m)

 

Wild ferocious mountain animals en route

Neue Regensburger Hütte (2286 m)

Dehumidified (or air-conditioned) boot drying room

This is a beautiful hut in immaculate condition. The hut was built in 1931 and enlarged in 1967-1968. This had been a 7½ hour walk, and I was tired. When you enter a hut, you must place your boots in racks or shelves and wear slippers or flip-flops in the building. This helps keep dirt and mud out of the hut.

Danger, danger, health food alert

 

Day 10, Franz-Senn Hütte (2147 m)

Franz Senn Hütte (2147 m)

Instructions for the uninitiated?

Obligatory torte ünd espresso

Franz Senn Hütte is another beautiful accommodation with good food, hot showers, and internet. This hut began life in 1885 and has been added to and enlarged several times.

Day 11, Starkenburger Hütte (2237 m)

Starkenburger Hutte (2237 m)

Crush your mobile phone here

Tiroler gröstl (more health food for the rugged bergsteiger)

Starkenburger was the last hut on the Stubai Rucksack route. This had been an 8-hr day, covering 13 km on a spectacular trail that cut across scree fields and below towering limestone peaks.

 

Day 12, Off the Mountain to Fulpmes

Mountain marathon at Kreuzjoch Panoramarest

This was my last day on the trail. I walked a few miles below towering limestone spires to the Kreuzjochbahn Berstation (cable car). The crowds watching a marathon were a rude awakening to being back in normal civilization. I took the cable car down to Fulpmes, then caught a bus to the town of Neistift.

I felt like a fish in Neustift. No problem, from the hatchery at the nearby stream.

Summary

Dear readers, this has been longer than I originally intended, but the exercise of sorting my pictures reminded me of the fabulous 12 days in the high country of the Stubai Alps. Everyone I met was unfailingly courteous and friendly. It is hard to find more rewarding hiking than the European Alps, be it in France, Switzerland, Germany, or Austria. Of course, Austria is a fantastic destination even if you are not a hiker. Once the pandemic restrictions have passed, just go. Enjoy the good life, experience good governance.

These were all digital files from a Moto G5 mobile phone.

The Phoenician Saline di Trapani e Paceco, Sicily

Trapani salt pans from the town of Erice (Èrici)

Sicily is one of these impossibly fascinating places to visit. The topography is dramatic, the people are friendly, the food is sublime, and the culture is an amazing interplay of Greek, Roman, Phoenician, Norman, Arab, and Italian influences. How could you not love an exploration of the culture and food? 

The Phoenecians settled in the coastal areas centuries before Roman domination. Among their developments are the famous and still-operating salt pans, the Saline di Trapani e Paceco, on the west coast of Sicily.

Kurlanski (2002) describes the salt pans:

South of Trapani along the coast, earthen dikes begin to appear and a few stone windmills. The dikes mark off ponds, some of which hold turquoise water, some pink. The stone towers of windmills stick out from these orderly pastel ponds. The saltworks are built out along the coast until towards the south, deep leafy green fields take over, which are the vineyards of Marsala wine. This is one of the oldest salt-making sites in the world - the one started by the Phoenicians to cure their tuna catch, and after the destruction of Carthage, continued by the Romans. When the Muslims were in Sicily from 800 to 1000, they wrote of the windmills of Trapani.

Early in the year (in winter), the workers open sluice gates to let sea water flood the shallow ponds. As the summer develops, the sun evaporates the water. Workers flush the brine into different ponds, allowing the brine to become successively more saline. 

By summer's end, the workers expose the salt that has precipitated to the bottom of the pans and then pile it in multi-ton piles, letting it continue to dry. The tan shapes are roof tiles erected to keep out rainwater. We bought a half kilo of the salt at the museum gift shop.

This is one of the old windmills. From Kurlanski (2002):

The current windmills are based on a Turkish model that was adopted by the Spanish, who brought their windmills to Sicily and later to Holland. About the year 1500, windmills were built here by a man named Grignani to move brine through the ponds. His son was named Ettore, which is the name of these saltworks facing the isle of Mozia. 

I love visiting places like this, where the ghosts of centuries - millennia - remind you that people have lived, worked, thrived, built, warred, and recovered on this land. It opens your eyes and soul. Do visit Sicily, definitely. Spend weeks - months - there.

These are digital images from a Panasonic G1 µ4/3 camera with various lenses. I processed the Raw files with PhotoNinja software.

References

Duncan, P. 1994. Sicily: A Traveler's Guide. John Murray, 244 p.

Kurlansky, M., 2002. Salt, A World History. Penguin Books, 484 p. 

The Technicolor Car Wash of Robinson Road, Jackson

I have written about Robinson Road before. In the 1980s and early 1990s, it was busy and looked reasonably prosperous. Now it is a wasteland of closed restaurants and shops and semi-occupied strip malls. I did a bit of exploring in early July (2021), and then I saw it: a decorated car wash. Nice job! But it was closed? Surely a car wash could stay in business. There was plenty of traffic and no end of dude-mobiles thumping along Robinson Road.

I also took some 4×5" frames with Super-XX film, but this may be a site better suited for color. I will post the Supper-XX frames some time in the future.

This is the former Mississippi Music. I recall shopping here in the early 1990s, but I can't recall if we bought a piano here. Now it is forlorn and moldering away.

These are digital files from my Moto G5 mobile phone.

The Abandoned Thomastown School of Mound, Louisiana

Thomastown School (Panatomic-X film, Leica IIIC, 50mm ƒ/2 Jupiter-8 lens)

Thomastown School (Tri-X film, Tachihara 4×5" camera, 135mm ƒ/5.6 Caltar S-II lens)

A forlorn school sits on an overgrown lot near the junction of US 80 (the former Dixie Overland Highway) and Mound Road (also shown on Google Maps and Thomastown Road). I first saw this abandoned school when I biked on Mound Road as a way to bypass some of the traffic on US 80. Well, maybe it is not technically abandoned. A farmer must own the buildings because he stores hay rolls on the the former parking lot and parks tractors and machinery in the former gymnasium. But the classrooms are a mess and totally neglected.

According to one website, the Thomastown High School was an all-black establishment that closed in 2001.

The 1-storey section on the north was mid-1960s mass production with a brick exterior. The bricks are in good condition, but the roof is leaking. The large windows show that this building did not have air conditioning when built.

The south section was 2-storey, and when I first saw the building from the road, I thought this might be an abandoned mid-century motel. The wide overhangs on both floors were designed to provide some shade to the windows (an architectural feature that more homes should use). The panels on the overhangs were asbestos sheets; many have fallen they crunch underfoot when you walk next to the building.

Classroom on west side (Kodak Gold 100 film, Hasselblad 501 CM, 50mm ƒ/4 Distagon lens, minor fill flash on ceiling)

Central hallway with cheap but intact cinderblock walls

Needless to say, the interior is a mess of debris, with dripping roof panels, standing water, and chipping paint.

This has been our short tour of a semi-abandoned school. I have no information about its fate. If it is privately-owned now, it may sit here moldering for decades.

The color photographs are from 120-size Kodak Gold 100 film. The film was long expired but had been stored in a freezer. I exposed it at EI=64 in my Hasselblad 501CM camera, all frames tripod-mounted.